1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a current collector shoe suspension for an externally powered electric vehicle wherein the shoes maintain sliding contact with a power rail over a wide range of vibration frequencies and amplitudes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional sliding shoe current collectors are generally biased against an electric power rail through a single vibration absorbing unit, an no problems occur as long as the collector or user vehicle speed is relatively low. When the collector speed becomes higher, however, the frequency of the forced mechanical vibrations generated by minute uneven portions on the sliding surface of the power rail correspondingly increases. The current collector shoes cannot respond to or follow such high frequency vibrations due to their inertia however, whereby they have a tendency to lose contact with the power rail which considerably degrades the vehicle performance and causes undue power loss, contact arcing and wear problems, etc.